La Tribune de Bruxelles recently wrote up an article about Hub Member Jean-Luc Roux. For those who don’t read French:

According to in-house Sociologist Jean-Luc Roux: «La majorité des gens qui travaillent actuellement en entreprise ne pourraient pas participer à une compétition sportive pour cause de dopage»

In other words, “most of those working in enterprises today could not participate in athletic competitions due to doping.” Apparently the nature of the office leads many employees to turn to medication, alcohol or drugs in order to manage the stress of the environment. The idea of intrinsic motivations versus extrinsic motivation is the determinant, according to Roux.

A child might have an inclination toward music that is then stamped out by parents who prefer for their children to chose more viable careers. Therefore, they are raised with the idea of working toward an objective – and this objective provides an extrinsic motivation or a motivation that is outside of oneself. The result is that when that objective is not met, the person is then left feeling empty, unfulfilled and lacking. However, a person with intrinsic motivation, that is something that comes from within or — more specifically — an innate talent, will be fulfilled by simply doing whatever job they have chosen to take on. Pay-day simply becomes an added bonus to the fulfilment already felt.

Roux describes people as having primary and secondary personalities. He states that the primary personality is constructed within the first three months of life. During this time, each activity that the child partakes in that is done without the goal of compensation transforms into a talent. At the end of this period, the primary personality barely changes. It becomes a foundation that can be counted on for life.

The secondary personality, however, is created by culture, values and institutionalised norms. In this case, competencies. And so you create your own personal Ying and Yang: your talents and your competencies. The primary is a fixed entity whereas the secondary is constantly subject to change thanks to new encounters with people and ideas, and especially learnt through the responses from others to our own actions.

Jean-Luc did a workshop at the Hub on the topic on May 6th, 2010 about how to make your talents and competencies work together for your own betterment.

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